we will never forget. thanks very much for watching 360. our continue coverage continues. and welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. you're watching cnn's continuing coverage of the aftermath of hurricane irma. i'm michael holmes with you live from tampa, florida. >> and i'm jogeorge howell, liv in atlanta, georgia, where it is still raining. we have a great deal to cover for you this hour. >> that's right, george. plenty to talk about. tropical depression irma weakening, but still packing a punch as it travels further north. downtown charleston, south carolina now under a flash flood

emergency. waters in the harbor, peaking at nearly 10 feet. we're about three meters high. one storm related death reported in that state. at least three storm related deaths reported in georgia. the flooding in savannah, forcing officials to temporarily shut down a highway leading to tiby island. irma has carved a path of destruction here in florida, where one storm related death has been reported. people in jacksonville experiencing storm surge levels and flooding. and the only road that connects the florida keys is still closed. an estimated 10,000 people who stayed there to ride out the storm may need to be evacuated. but the city managers say there are no plans to evacuate anyone at the moment. that's it for me here in tampa. back to you, george, in atlanta. >> michael, thank you. as i mentioned, it is still raining in atlanta.

we started to feel the strong winds pushing through the city in the morning. we also saw flooding throughout the region. you talk about cities like savannah, you talk about tiby island and charleston, south carolina. i want to point this out. charleston dealing with a flash flood emergency this hour activated a short time ago. we'll have a little more on that in just a few minutes. the situation at the airports, the world's busiest airport right here in atlanta, georgia, look at this image here, not so busy in this case, but because of so many flight cancellations and delays. delta airlines, more than 900 of its flights canceled. southwest airlines canceling all of its flights due to dangerous winds crossing through their airport complex. take a look at this. this image from flight aware that gives you a sense of what's described as the misery factor. you see atlanta there front and center with that. also the airports in florida,

the florida airports expected to resume normal flight patterns tomorrow, partial flight patterns. again, it will take time for people to find flights that they can get on. our meteorologist is following this story. pedron, of course, the thing we just pointed out in charleston, south carolina, they're dealing with a real situation right now. >> it's incredible, too. they were just a few hundred miles away from the storm system, but the center of the storm, moving through alabama, but on the southern periphery of this back to the east, we're getting the thunderstorms pushing off towards charleston. the wind driven water also coming in with this. this is a flash flood emergency taking place. but the lone piece to tell you about, tropical depression irma

on its last breath right now. on satellite imagery here, completely begins to fall apart here. so we're seeing the storm run out of energy, but not before it left behind 6 1/2 inches of rainfall in florida. what does that mean? that's about 7.5 trillion gallons of water that fell in florida. 11 million olympic pools is what that equates to. another way to look at it, for every single person living in florida, about 300,000 gallons of water fell from the sky. so again, talk about the sheer volume of water the storm had to work with. left behind some 40 gauges that are reporting some flooding and widespread power outages across multiple states. that's 6.5 million customers without power in florida is the single highest power outage associated with a weather event in u.s. history coming in at that number. we know the storm made landfall sunday morning at a category 4

just 16 days after harvey made landfall as a category 4. this landfall right in line with the latitude and longitude as hurricane wilma. that tet the stage here for getting that on shore flow, significant storm surge damage. on the other side of the storm into jacksonville and charleston where we had record flooding take place, as well. how about almost six foot storm surge in jacksonville. that had never happened before. savannah river, 12 and a quarter feet, second highest all time. in charleston, where we have the flash flood emergency, third highest all-time level. initially it went from a category 1 to a category 3,

completely skipped 2 status. worked its way towards barbuda, the turks and caicos. the strongest storm they had ever seen. the cuba category 5 landfall was the strongest storm they've seen since 1924. so this storm left its mark across a wide reaching area. but you take a look at this, george, when you look at what occurred on satellite imagery from st. john's, st. thomas, look at the greenery to what it looks like right now. essentially all of the vegetation is uprooted and displaced, but a lot of saltwater damaging any growth inside the next few days across these islands, george. >> wow. just when you think about how strong and big this storm was, and the fact that it made such a big impact there, an impact that will last for many years. pedram, thank you so much. a great deal of devastation throughout the caribbean and florida. michael holmes there in tampa.

michael, a lot of damage to talk about. but certainly people there breathing a sigh of relief, because it could have been much worse there. >> yeah. here in tampa, absolutely, you're right, george. when irma was making that track it looked like the eye would stay offshore and go west of tampa. there was a lot of fear the wind would push a major storm surge into a city that is vulnerable to precisely that. it's long been feared that something like irma would cause a disastrous storm surge in tampa. a lot of the areas have been built on a low-lying coastal area. because the water stretches well inside the city. the mayor told me a couple of nights ago, he feared this would be a major punch to the face is the words he used for tampa. fortunately for tampa, of course, irma headed inland and east of here rather than west.

and the storm surge everyone happened. there was a lot of damage done in certain parts of the city, but nowhere near what it could have been. i want to bring in derek vandam who has been covering miami beach and the like. when we talk about storm surge that did not really happen here, it certainly happened where you are. >> yeah, michael. we were not spared from storm surge here in miami. in fact, irma responsible for thrusting the ocean from the atlanta into the biscayne bay region. we are in the bayshore marina region near coconut grove. several marinas dot this landscape. what you see behind me is some of the worst destruction that these marinas have seen in 12 years. that's 2005. we all know that's an infamous year for hurricanes. katrina, wilma to name a few. asounding to see what's happening. some personal stories that are astounding, as well.

we talked to an individual who works here. he told us about some of these sailboats you see behind me that have been washed ashore. these are part of a non-profit organization that was started here that takes children out into the ocean, teaches them how to sail, life building lessons. unfortunately, there are three of the nine sailboats that they use are unaccounted for. six of which are still on shore here are completely ruined without a doubt. actually, a couple more sailboats unassociated with them only have the mast visible on the top part of the water. so hurricane irma combining her 150-kilometer-per-hour winds, with the tidal surge tossing around these yachts and sailboats like toys and depoz its them on the shoreline and on the concrete jetty and dock behind me. michael? >> quite a scene there.

a lot of people with their dreams smashed there. derek vandam, thanks so mush. appreciate it. george, the storm surge is quite a thing when it does happen. of course, in hurricanes, more people die from water than they do from wind. >> storm surge is exactly what we're going to talk about here next in jacksonville, florida, michael. storm surge historic there, and ed dean with radio station wbob joins us now to tell us more about that. ed, good to have you with us today. first of all, tell us what was it like when you saw that storm surge? >> you know, it was like what michael said. that storm surge around the naples area and tampa bay, it seemed like jacksonville got it. it was predicted to only be two foot storm surge. it turned into a category 5 almost around 5 1/2, 6 feet of

water of the storm surge that came through. it was expected, but not expected that high, george. >> you know, one thing people always wonder, how do you prepare for something like that? especially if you're living in one of the lower lying areas. do you get a sense that people did try to evacuate, that they did try to prepare as best as possible, given all the warnings about storm surge and the strength of the storm? >> they were told to evacuate in many of the areas with low lying areas. george, this is nothing new. this has been around for years, especially covering this. they knew they were going to get a storm surge, but nothing of this height out there. they were warned that the waters were coming. they were told almost five days in advance. go to a higher shelter. it's all taken care of. a lot of people felt when they saw the cone there, when it was going further west, that maybe they would be deprived of all the nonsense of the weather and the big storms.

then they got smacked pretty hard. flooding in some of the areas is not new, but this magnitude is something they should have been prepared for but they were not. >> i'll ask our director to show again, all the video to get a sense of how bad this is. look at this video. you know, when you think about the damage from this storm that passed through, how long do you think it will take for people to get back to a sense of normalcy? >> george, they're talking up here in jacksonville, this would be a week to week and a half. it's going to be very interesting. by the way, just for the audience, if you look at a map at the state of florida, the st. john's river outside the nile liver is the only river that flows northward. so st. john's is called the river city. you have the ocean within 15 minutes, the st. john's which

the city is on. that creates the perfect storm. it comes in one area of the north. when the southerly winds came in, it blew a lot of that onto the city. and daytime around 7:00 a.m. yesterday morning, we reported it. it is coming, and i think again, you go to 2 1/2 feet, that was predicted. this time around, 5 1/2 feet. totally caught everybody off guard. >> you know, one other thing that's going to be a big issue, as people start heading back into those parts of the city impacted so badly, what advice would you tell people from what you're seeing right now? will it be easy for people to get back in? will it take some time for officials to give the all-clear there? >> you know, george, it's really interesting. we have all as news guys covered storms. we always say we learned from the previous lesson.

they say oh, we learned from the previous lesson or that. i don't know how many more lessons people should take. the hurricanes i covered in 2004, eight storms that hit florida, people should been ready for this. forget the wind for a second. the wind, it was almost 90 miles per hour. it was the storm surge. everybody knows you live in a low-lying flood area. they should have gone to a higher area and a lot of individuals, i think they sat back and said this water would have rescinded. many municipalities here in florida, you live in low-lying areas, maybe some of the storm drainage, some of this has to be taken care of. but a lot of this has to do with mother nature. if this was unprecedented, it's going to be an interesting conversation over the months to come.

>> ed dean from wbob in jacksonville, florida. thank you for taking time on line with us today. so again, this storm still pushing north. it could affect some nine other states with a great deal of rain and winds, michael, that we even saw here in atlanta. picked up really strong gusts throughout the day. >> yeah. i have no idea what's going on at my house. we're still down here in florida. you make a great point. irma, of course, is no longer a hurricane. hasn't been for a while. but it is ending with a bang. in south carolina, downtown charleston facing widespread and dangerous flooding. and also tens of thousands of people without power in savannah, georgia. some of the city's historic streets are under water. one official said it's not as bad as she expected. that and much more when we come back here on cnn. where's gary?

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welcome back, everyone. irma is getting weaker, but it has left destruction and devastation in its weak. it is now a tropical depression, affecting at least nine u.s. states. there were three storm-related deaths in georgia. and a man was killed by a large tree branch in south carolina. downtown charleston under a

flash flood emergency. irma flooded streets there, turning them into rivers. got some time lapse to show you now. you can see the water coming up to about knee level. but in other areas, the water was as high as around 10 feet or three meters or so. all right. let's no gow to george howell standing by in atlanta, georgia, where it's been wet and windy. george? >> and remains wet and windy. a little less rain right now. the rain comes and goes. a lot worse earlier in the day, atlanta, this part of the united states certainly feel thing storm as it pushes north. talk about flooding, though. flooding in savannah, georgia. flooding in tiby island and chatham county, georgia, where i spoke with the public information office we are chatham county. i asked her about the situation there this night and through the next day or so. >> things are actually improving

here. we've been out of the weather for a while. our tide, while high tonight, was not a major tide. even though we were kind of expecting a 10, it was much less, so that helped out a lot. we did receive a lot of flooding in our islands and coastal and low-lying areas from storm surge and heavy rain. we did have some wind damage as far as blowing down branches and some trees that have come down, those types of things. but it certainly isn't as bad as we were expecting a couple of days ago. >> explain how the moon would have played sbho th eed into thg tide. >> we did have an exceptionally high tide with the storm surge. we had a 4.7 foot surge. so that made the ft. pulaski

gauge, it was a 12.24 around 12:30. so that is exception atly high that did cause a lot of problems. those things that are coastal areas. >> catherine, so there is a curfew in effect this night, correct? explain to us how long that curfew will remain in effect, and what do you tell residents, those that want to come back into those communities, given that there is damage? >> right. we respect that everybody wants to get back in to look at their property, that's important. but we do have a curfew in place, from 11:00 a.m. -- excuse me, 11:00 p.m. last night to 6:00 a.m. this morning. and the reason that we have done that is because we don't want people moving around the county in the dark. we're still being affected by having power outages. we still have at least 70,000 residents that don't have power. georgia power is working on that for us.

they're amazing and awesome and have restored a lot of our power. we do have dark areas. we have trees and lines down. we don't want anyone to get hurt. so we have asked everybody to stay put for the night. as far as coming back into the county, we'll make announcements about that tomorrow. again, we have to secure the county first. we need to make sure that everything is okay for people to come back. we need to inspect roads and bridges. we need to make sure the powerlines aren't in the roads and people aren't going to run over them. so we've asked everybody to stay put right now. and we'll get everybody back in as soon as we can. >> that was catherine glasby from chatham county. i want to update everyone about the world's busiest airport. we're getting this about delta airlines. it canceled 1,100 flights on monday. a lot of travelers in a bad state of affairs.

so many cancellations. but again, looking to resume operations in the next day or so. resuming operations slowly. this mainly due to the strong winds that crossed that airport complex. but again, delta airlines on monday, canceling 1,100 flights. so michael, a great impact when you think about how much traffic passes through the atlanta airport and how many people in the caribbean are looking to get pack to the states. until these major airports in atlanta and in florida get back to normal operations, it is going to take some time for them. >> yeah, indeed it is. you and i both know how busy that airport is in atlanta. and to be cancelling that many flights, that has a knock-on affect all around the country and indeed the world. george, thanks so much. florida, of course, facing the daunting task of having now to

recover from this monster storm. earlier i spoke with jack seiler, the mayor of ft. lauderdale and began by asking what the priorities are. >> we've got obviously to dry out a little bit. we've got a fair amount of rain from a very, very big and bad and very, very broad storm. but we're in a phase right now where we're dealing with trying to complete our assessment. we've been out of the storm now for about a full day, but our area being just a rather large urban area, greater ft. lauderdale is almost 2 million people. we've just are in the process of finally doing our assessment in terms of powerlines, street lights, a lot of sand that got moved across the barrier island and a lot of trees that snapped. we were doing a tree assessment

and we had over 100 trees blocking roads at various places. so it's a significant storm, so whether we escaped the brunt or not, we're feeling the after effects. >> yeah, clearing roads i think is described by a lot of people as a very obvious thing. but a real priority. if you don't have clear roads, you can't get emergency vehicles around. and power, we were talking about before it, it could be weeks, i think 5 million people still without power in this state. how long do you see the recovery there? >> obviously it's phases of recovery. from a short term stand point, we can clear the debris out of the road. now you get into the longer term things and you touched on one. you're 100% correct, the power issue. we've got in broward county

hundreds of thousands lost power. we already had some people get their power restored. i was surprised i'm getting calls of people since this morning saying hey, i got my power back. or i get a text, we got our power back. so florida power and light is apparently working around the clock, and we appreciate that, to get the power back. but there are phases of recovery. if anybody tells you that you recover of a storm of this magnitude in a short period of time, they're not being accurate and truthful, because this is a phased recovery and will take care of some of the smaller things, the opening the roads, the debris cleanup, traffic signals. but this community took a pretty good bunch and we're going to be fine. but this is going to take weeks and months to fully recover.

and we'll see where we're going. but again, there's a sense of gratitude, like we didn't get the full brunt of it. we're blessed and fortunate here in ft. lauderdale. >> keep it right here on cnn. when we come back after a short break, thousands of people in the ravaged florida keys could still be forced to evacuate, even after irma is gone. we'll speak to a storm chaser about the devastation there after a break. - [narrator] with custom ink you can design custom t-shirts and other great products

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welcome back, everyone. i'm michael holmes coming to you live from tampa, florida. >> and i'm george howell live in atlanta, georgia. our continuing coverage on the aftermath of hurricane irma and a great deal to tell you about this hour. >> indeed, thanks, george. irma getting waeaker, but it ha left destruction and devastation everywhere it's gone. it is now a tropical depression, but still affects at least nine u.s. states. in south carolina, irma flooded downtown charleston where the water was at one point as high

as three meters about ten feet. and the downtown area is now under a further flash flood emergency. jacksonville, florida, saw a record storm surge, turning streets into rivers. and this is part of the devastation in the florida keys, where irma hit as a category 4 hurricane. homes were destroyed. roads blocked, and one resident told us "there's nothing left in his community." >> the florida keys were hit especially hard by this storm. the eye of irma passing right over key west, florida. let's bring in storm chaser reed timber, who has been driving there along highway one to give us a sense of what's happening there. how bad was this storm when it passed through? >> it looks like the worst of hurricane irma came into the lower keys. there are three or four keys just to the east of key west. i really should say devastating

damage. and even further east surprisingly, too, including the marathon area. isla but the brunt of the wind came in at big piney key where they had 130 to 150 miles per hour. you can see the storm surge damage, you can see debris. docks and homes all over the homes. a storm surge that was several feet deep. and we wenld through summerland key. we found a man that rode out the storm in his home, and he was inside the eye of that hurricane. the backside of the winds came through at 150 miles per hour, it ripped off the roof. he had to ride through in the bathroom hoping it wouldn't collapse. >> i'm surprised that highway one is still standing when you

consider the intensity that irma brought through. what is the live like for you right now? i would imagine you're trying to drive back up towards florida. what's that like? >> yeah. highway 1, pieces of it are missing. the water was so powerful, some of the waves -- we saw vehicles go into the ocean. it just shows you the power of that storm surge. we were finally able to make it out earlier today. we were the first people out of there. we saw the national guard, the army corps of engineers inspecting the bridges. and the road was still closed. we were going around debris and having to move debris. it was a treacherous drive. just seeing all the loss of property and just realizing that even possible loss of life happened. especially on parts of the lower keys, that you feel for the

people of south florida. >> reed, here's the thing. at some point people will start to drive back into that part of the state and will want to understand the extent of the damage. given what you're seeing right now, what you've seen, what advice would you tell people about driving into that region? >> definitely expect the worse if you live in the lower keys. it still make a few days before you can get in there. when we left the homestead area, everybody was trying to get into the keys and nobody could. they were allowing a few people out. but there were many people that weren't able to get out. they have no cell phone oh signal, no power, no running water. people are just there cut off from the outside world. we lost power about 8:30 in the morning when that eyewall came in. it's not good there in the lower

keys. the first responders had not arrived yet when we were doing search and rescue. i hope they made it there this afternoon, because the devastation was just a mess there in the lower keys, especially key west. >> reed timmer for accuweather, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> and thanks to george howell there. now, it's a wider perspective on how much damage hurricane irma has done. coming up, we're going to give you the satellite view. it's fascinating. also, french officials say st. martin was 95% destroyed by hurricane irma. and now president macron is heading to the caribbean to survey the damage on the french islands. we'll have an interview with our jim bittermann after the break. when this bell rings... ...it starts a chain reaction... ...that's heard throughout the connected business world.

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welcome back, everyone. returning now with our continuing coverage of hurricane irma and its aftermath here in florida.

officials and residents just beginning to get a sense of the widespread destruction. a new estimate finds irma and hurricane harvey in texas will koz between $150 and $200 billion worth of damage. that's about the cost of damage caused by hurricane katrina back in 2005. now, we've got some satellite images of the devastation in the caribbean, when irma was, of course, a category 5 storm. we're going to show those to you now. digital globe provide these images. what you see there is the island of tortola before the storm and after. incredible. and now the turks and caicos islands before irma and after. now, this picture shows phillipsburg on the dutch side of st. martin before the hurricane. and after.

amazing, isn't it? and finally, another photo from st. martin before the storm. and after it passed. incredible to see that, isn't it? the french president emmanuel macron is heading to st. martin and st. bart's tuesday to oversee relief efforts there. both of those islands devastated by hurricane irma. cnn's jim bittermann joining us now live from paris. jim, some controversy over how this was handled. what sort of reception is mr. macron likely to receive? >> reporter: well, it may not be the friendliest reception. the fact is, the president has been severely criticized by the residents of both islands in the caribbean, st. bart's and st. martin. a number of those victims of the hurricane arrived in france

yesterday, and they complained of feeling abandoned, the fact that they were subject to looting and to armed gangs, and that the law and order kind of broke down on the french side of that island, st. martin's, which is half dutch and half french. meantime, the dutch king visited the dutch side of the island yesterday. so macron appears to be coming just a day late. of course, for people that they say have suffered five days for having food and water, they are really objecting a bit to the way the french handled this island, which is of course part of the french territory, but a long way from france. and so the islanders feel a little abandoned through all of this. michael? >> yeah. just very briefly, if you will, jim. he's leaving behind some serious stuff, too. a big strike. >> reporter: absolutely.

today is the national day of strike proposed by one of the unions here. and it's being called the first big test for emmanuel macron after his economic program met with some hostility. he's having a tough time in the opinion polls. his popularity has dropped 20 points in three months. sit a test for him on the ground. back here in france and a test out there in the caribbean as well, michael. >> indeed. jim bittermann in paris. our thanks. we'll have much more on the aftermath of hurricane irma in our next hour. but first, john vors has more. >> up next, what brexit means for prime minister theresa may. we are live in london. also ahead, north korea warned the u.s. would face pain and suffering if the u.n. passed new sanctions. on monday, the u.n. did just that. so what happens that?

that's after the break.

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for theresa may. the comments approve the eu withdrawal. that makes eu bills into domestic law in 2019. the bill faces a final vote and many lawmakers are demanding significant changes. what is the reasoning here? why do the labor mts believe this is a mad power grabby theresa may? >> the concern this bill is a power grab isn't limited to the opposition party, in fact, there's a lot of fear in the government party, the conservative party, that this bill takes too much power and puts it back in the hands of ministers. the concern is this bill creates new powers for ministers to be

able to amend certain laws without full pairly men tear scrutiny. the government says this is necessary to avoid black holes for when the eu lives in 2019. but the opposition fears this is dangerous and might damage de-mo k kra si in the long run. there are a lot of amendments expected at the next stage in order to get it to its third reading. so at committee stage they're going to take it line by line and offer amendments to try to limit that power grab. >> sounds like a rough road ahead for the prime minister there. thank you for being with us at 7:51 in london. north korea has been hit with tough new u.n. sanctions over kim jong-un's nuclear programs. they nam mousily approved the

resolutions, which is for people working overseas and textile. they'll be hit with a 30% oil reduction import. despite that, u.s. ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley described these sanctions as a win. >> in short these are by far the strongest measures ever imposed on north korea. they give us a better chance to halt the ability to the fuel and finance its nuclear and missile programs. but we all know these steps only work if all nations implement them completely and aggressively. will ripley is live for us in pardoning. there are russian fingerprints all over these, but will the regime also see this as

a win? >> reporter: perhaps because you have to look at all the things that needed to be thrown out for this. freezing the assets of the carrier that travels back and forth of russia, allowing a little bit of diplomatic activities was eliminated. so you have a watered down bill that russia and china would approve. but north korea has lived under heavy sanctions for a long time and have found ways to get around them. >> we're waiting to see what north korea's response would be, it could be a ballistic missile launch and maybe on a more acute angle. and that has a lot of consequences. >> reporter: south korea has thought that north korea is

ready to launch a intercontinental ballistic missile. they thought it was going to happen to mark the country's foundation day, it didn't happen and hasn't happened yet. one thing i learned from traveling to this country, while they are predictable in the sense you know there will be another missile launch, you don't know when or why. but in conversation here, clearly there is outrage about the sanctions. it's not a surprised. they've seen it coming and said they expected sanctions in spite of their tests and missile launches and they said they will continue to grow their economy in defiance of the sanctions and more importantly they say out of anything they cut, the missile programs and nuclear programs would be the last. so the sanctions cause them to accelerate their development and we have to take them for their word on that. they've proven despite round after round of sanctions they continue. >> very quickly here because

some within the trump administration say sanctions will not work, there has to be something else. what could that be to get the north korean's onboard? >> reporter: concessions, recognition. something the united states isn't willing to do. north korea wants its seat at the table, respect and legitimacy and want to improve their economic situation. but what nay're unwilling to do is get rid of their nuclear program. so until the united states is willing to accept a nuclear north korea, which they said they won't do so, it's hard to see how they'll get down to discussions. >> will thank you. appreciate you being live for us this hour. i'm john vause live for us in los angeles. our coverage of hurricane irma continues from georgia and florida after a short break. you're watching cnn. once there was a little pig

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welcome to our view ers in the united states and all around the world. you're watching cnn's continuing coverage of the aftermath of hurricane irma. i'm michael holmes coming to you live from tampa, florida. >> i'm george howell live in atlanta, georgia we're still feeling the effects of this storm, rain still coming down, 3:00 a.m. on the east coast and still more to cover for you this hour. >> tropical depression irma is no longer the monster hurricane that barrelled into florida on sunday and we are now starting to see the scope of